What I nearly saw!

The last two evenings have proven to be fine nights for sightings and now, at last, the telescope is out in Sheffield. I say out, I still need some fine adjustments between finder and spotter scope but it's outside and looking at the stars. Now then, maybe that last bit needs to be amended, it's more a case of looking for the stars!

My first sighting was, what I thought to be Jupiter, It filled the eyepiece and I was patting myself on the back when looking at the direction it was in it actually turned out to be Capella. Don't get me wrong it was a great sight but I did think it was Jupiter. I was suprised to read that Capella is actually a binary star. It certainly looked like just one object in my scope. I'm starting to doubt it was Capella now!

When I turned the scope around for a look at Arcturus I couldn't find it in the telescope anywhere. What the evening proved was it is just not feasible to hurriedly set up a telescope and expect to be able to find things. It needs a lot more preparation than I gave it to get the results I was expecting. The next fine afternoon I shall be pacing my garden and marking out North with a large stick or marker pen and will hopefully have a more rewarding night.

Al.